Spiritual practices and quality of life in elderly patients in a peruvian hospital

Introduction: Spirituality and quality of life maintain a positive relationship, where the former acts as a fundamental pillar for integral well-being. Objective: To analyze the relationship between spiritual practices and the quality of life of older adults in a Peruvian Public Hospital. Material and Methods: Quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive approach, probabilistic sampling by 340 patients. Validated instruments were used: Daily Spiritual Experience Test (DSES) with 16 items distributed in 11 dimensions, Quality of Life Scale: WHOQOL-OLD, with 24 items in 6 dimensions. Both tools use Likert scales and demonstrated high reliability, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.899 and 0.790, respectively. Results: The sample was characterized by a predominance of women (69.7%; n=216), Age (X ̅ = 67.72 and SD= 6.44) and older adults between 60 and 69 years old (63.5%). In terms of spirituality, high levels of gratitude (63.5%), divine support (58.8%) and spiritual exercises (55.9%) stood out. The highest level of spiritual practices, 43.2% and 12.1% experienced a regular quality of life. Finally, a significant association was found between the female sex and the variables of spiritual practices (45.0%) and quality of life (47.6%). Conclusions: The results of the statistical analysis using Spearman's Rho revealed a moderate positive correlation (rs = 0.423) with a level of statistical significance (p = 0.000). It is confirmed that both variables covary directly: an increase in spiritual practices is linked to a proportional improvement in the quality of life of the population under study.